Our Solidarity Fund

With so many people on very tight budgets these days, many are struggling to put food on the table. We deliberately invite people who are suffering from food insecurity to join in the life of our Real Economy Centres. We work with the idea that ‘everyone can do something’ so each person who comes to our centres is invited to join in some activity for the good of themselves and others.

Our aim is to work together to improve the neighbourhood and create ‘a community where no one need be hungry and no one need be alone’. At each gathering the community prepares and cooks a meal from fresh ingredients and fresh food is available to take home at the end of the day for those who have participated in the day’s activities.

The food that we provide comes from local producers. We believe that supporting local and natural production of food is an important route to improving our food system today (see our 5 Reasons for sourcing food from local producers) . We also believe that local producers should be paid properly for the food that they produce. So we have created a special Solidarity Fund to allow us to pay local producers for the free or subsidised food that we provide through our Real Economy Centres.

We hope you will consider this to be a worthwhile initiative. You will find in the coming weeks that at the end of each shop there will be an invitation to contribute an extra £2 to our Solidarity Fund so that you can play a part in supporting this work. It is also possible to donate directly and we are looking for some substantial donations to start this fund off. We will report to our members about the use of this fund. Donations will benefit from Gift Aid.

Link to Donate

Real Economy Solidarity Fund

The purpose of this fund is to pay for the supply of fresh, local and ethically sourced food to people in various forms of hardship through our Real Economy Centres. Those receiving the food will be participants in community activities at our Centres who are concerned about being able to afford food for themselves or their families. The development worker at each centre will be responsible for the distribution of food, working to sustain the highest standards of personal dignity for all members.